Worked the last two games of a local charity tournament yesterday. Very good sportsmanship overall, and the money raised goes to the family of a young man who was paralyzed in an unfortunate accident.

Anyway, one of the boys in the game has only one hand. He has no right arm below the elbow, and he has no prosthesis. So he can only dribble left-handed. Consequently, he doesn't handle the ball much. Consequently, even when he does handle the ball, he doesn't dribble very well.

But at one point, he was bring the ball from backcourt to frontcourt, and he was being guarded. Since he was not a very good dribbler, to maintain better control of his dribble, every two or three dribbles, he would pin the ball between his left hand and the stump of his right elbow.

After doing this about 3 times, my partner finally called him for a double dribble. The crowd laughed and booed at the same time. Everybody knew it was right, but somebody asked "How can you call that?!" It was all good-natured, even to the young man.

Just an odd situation I thought I'd share.

Yes. It is what it is. ;)

Didn't someone on this board have a signature line that said, "Just when you think you've seen it all, something new happens"?

There is a young man in my neighborhood, 12 years old, who had (I don't know medical terms) a stroke or something similar to it before he was born. Consequently, he has somewhat limited use of his entire right side. This is not terribly noticeable to the casual observer, but it does affect the way he runs (he does have good speed in spite of dragging his right leg a bit) and he plays almost exclusively with his left hand. Guess what? In our recent 11-12 rec league this kid was the most valuable player and believe me, there was no sympathy involved in the vote. Nobody else was close to him. Goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it.

Thanks Chuck, I needed a post that doesn't bash sports announcers or Ted Valentine.

I used to work a rec league that had a player with some affliction that severely afected his legs (MD or something like it). Anyway, he had a wicked outside set shot but whenever he touched the ball he would shuffle his feet to keep his balance. I don't think I ever saw a travel called on him though.

How was your weekend?

This weekend I worked what amounts to a state mens league tournament. The teams vary in skill from high school kids who come to get banged around and get toughened up to the "seasoned" and best men's league teams in the state. One of the perenial contending teams has a player like chuck described with no arm below the elbow on the right side. The difference however is that this guy played at a D-II school. He has a sweet jump shot and has good range. He is about 6 feet tall and can occasionally get in and get a rebound. Yesterday I saw him handle a bullet bounce pass for a layup. I was thinking at one point yesterday, this guy can do it all but my guess is dribbling behind his back is out....then just when I thought I had seen it all.....there it was he dribbled behind his back...and it worked...LOL Great guy and I admire what he does everytime I see him play.